Barrington to visit ‘Bel-Air’

Stage co. to put on summer workshops

While familiar titles by Tennessee Williams, Rodgers & Hammerstein and Anthony Shaffer will provide summertime entertainment on the mainstage, Barrington Stage Company in Pittsfield, Mass., will workshop two tuners: “Poolside at the Hotel Bel-Air,” about a pool boy’s summer in glitzy L.A., and “I’ll Be Damned,” centering on a home-schooled, comicbook-loving teen who sells his soul to Satan in exchange for a friend.

The musical lab, overseen by composer William Finn and artistic director Julianne Boyd, has provided opportunities for new shows for the past three seasons. Staged readings of “Poolside,” by Jane Allard and Nikos Tsakalakos, will run May 23 and 24. “I’ll Be Damned,” by Ron Broadhurst and Brent Black, runs Aug. 13-29.

Also featured in the company’s overall lineup will be a world preem, in Barrington’s Stage II, of Mark St. Germain’s play “Freud’s Last Session” (June 10-28), about an aging Freud and an encounter with C.S. Lewis. On tap as well is Glen Berger’s one-hander “Under the Lintel” (July 8-26).

The theater company in the Berkshires opens its 15th season with R&H’s “Carousel,” staged by Boyd (June 17-July 11). Next up is Shaffer’s two-hander thriller “Sleuth” (July 16-Aug. 1), followed by Williams’ “A Streetcar Named Desire,” also helmed by Boyd (Aug. 6-29). A mainstage fall show has yet to be named.

The company’s Youth Theater will put on Disney’s “High School Musical 2” July 15-Aug. 16.